The goodnight song
Now the sun has gone to bed
Outside, the night is falling
We must sleep now
Will have to rest our body because tomorrow we have to get up
“Now the sun has gone to bed, the night is waiting outside, we must sleep now, we must rest ourselves, for tomorrow we’ll get up”.
Popular entertainer Sigurd Barrett (no relation to the author of this article, although many, many Danes have asked me) has a long back catalogue of kids’ songs but this lullaby is probably the most played and definitely the most relaxing.
It has an excellent track record for getting tired toddlers to sleep in cars (based on my sample size of one) and its gentle piano melody even lulls mums and dads after a long day.
The Elephant’s Lullaby
A lullaby about bedtime for elephants, ostriches and rhinos, this song has been around for decades and has seen several versions since it was written in 1948 by Harald Andreas Hartvig Lund.
The most popular version these days is probably the one by legendary Danish singer Kim Larsen, who recorded it for a 1993 album of children’s songs.
Its lyrics paint a vivid and wonderful picture of zebras in pyjamas, coconuts being turned into baby’s rattles, and cribs made of green bananas. I wonder how many exciting dreams kids have after being sung to sleep to the adventures of little Jumbo the elephant.
Today is Ole’s birthday
The classic birthday song “Happy Birthday to You” has variations in many languages. In Denmark, however, you’ll find yourself at birthday parties singing a version of Today is Ole’s birthday (“Today it’s Ole’s Birthday”), with the birthday boy or girl’s name replacing “Ole” in the title and lyrics.
The text and melody were written in 1913, so the song has been around for generations and part of its popularity is the fact that you can switch out the original name for that of whoever’s birthday it is.
While you can also personalise the English version of “Happy Birthday”, that’s not the case in all language versions of that song. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining why a different birthday song caught on in Denmark.
Now sing after me: she sure gets a gift that she has wanted this year
with lovely chocolate and gifts
There were two cats sitting on a table
I might as well apologise now for annoying you for the rest of the day and probably tomorrow too, because this is the ultimate in ear worms. I’m sorry.
A sweet tale about to two cats who address each other as “my friend” and can’t decide whether to sit on the table or the floor, it’s the Chalk white white white boom boom refrain between lines that will really get into your head. Kids love it.
You can listen to the song below, if you dare.
Far out in the forest lay a small mountain
Like the previous entry, this song has a repetitive element to it. Its title translates to “Deep in the forest there was a little mountain”.
Each version adds an element to the description in the title: a tree on the mountain, a branch on the tree, a twig on the branch, a leaf on the twig and so forth.
It’s a fun one to sing with kids because they enjoy the play element of trying to remember the new part on each repeat. By the end, it gets very long and can descend into farce.
These five songs do not even begin to form an exhaustive list of Denmark’s wide, wide, wide repertoire of children’s songs. Which ones can you not get out of your head? Which means something special for you or your children? Let us know in the comments below!